Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Hey guys,its bin quite a long time since i posted a blog here.Today i wish to discuss about player burnout which has been hurting Indian Cricket team for quite sometime.Team India has seen players coming into the squad at a very early age of 20 and 21.Its defintely a proud moment for the player to represent the country but do we ever think about the pressure that is on him to perform and has he got it in him to face the pressure head on.This sets the stage for another question Whether it is right to have such young or rather premature players in the squad.

To answer this question let me bring in a classical example of our very own Speedster Ishant Sharma.He was a raw talent and was inducted in the side for the tour down under and everybody wanted him to bowl at the speed of knots.He did just that and almost won the series for us.But when he came back home,the same was expected out of him and for unknown reasons he could not perform well.Soon his position in the squad became unstable and now we dont even hear about him.

This is one good example of how exactly a raw talent without any training to face the heat had succumbed to pressure.His story is just the tip of the iceberg.Our coaching system is such that only the cricketing aspects are imparted as knowledge to the players.what we dont do is train a player to face the pressure and help him to come out when he has a rough patch in his carrier.

Well only training doesn't help.The player has to be put under hours of match practice to check if whatever skills taught are exhibited by him at the crucial moment.This system can be achieved best only at the domestic level.By the time he is 24 or 25 which i feel should be the best age for a position in the national side,he would be a complete player not just with his cricketing skills but also by his psychological skills to win over pressure.

If the above system is followed then we can rest assure that the quality of players would increase manifold and "Player Burnout" will be a thing of the past.